Laravel make a relationships with different column names in different tables

Updated: Feb 04, 2025

Laravel make a relationships with different column names in different tables

In Laravel, establishing relationships between tables with different column names for the foreign keys can be achieved using the foreign method in the model's hasMany, belongsTo, hasOne, or belongsToMany relationships. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to set up relationships with different column names in different tables.

  1. Define the relationships in the models:

Let's assume we have two tables, users and posts. The users table has a primary key named id, and the posts table has a foreign key named user_id. We want to establish a one-to-many relationship between users and posts.

First, let's define the relationships in the respective models:

In app/User.php:

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('App\Post', 'user_id');
    }
}

In app/Post.php:

class Post extends Model
{
    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('App\User', 'user_id');
    }
}
  1. Use the relationships in your controllers or views:

Now that we have defined the relationships, we can use them in our controllers or views to retrieve related data.

For example, in a PostController:

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $posts = App\Post::with('user')->get();

        return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));
    }
}

In the PostsController@index method, we use the with method to eager load the related User model. This way, when we pass the $posts variable to the view, it will also have the related user data.

In the posts.index view, you can access the related user data using the $post->user property.

@foreach ($posts as $post)
    <p>{{ $post->user->name }}</p>
    <p>{{ $post->content }}</p>
@endforeach

That's it! You have successfully established a relationship between two tables with different column names for the foreign keys in Laravel.